Responsibilities
Success in co-operative education depends upon the three-way partnership between the employer, the student and the College. As an employer, we ask you to:
- Provide the College with an accurate, informative job description
- Review resumes and select candidates to be interviewed
- Interview selected students on campus or at your work site
- After hiring a student, send him or her a letter outlining the work term offer including start and end dates, hours of work, location, supervisor’s name and rate of pay
- Honour the term of the work contract. However, if a student is terminated before the end of a semester for any reason, notify the co-op office immediately
- Comply with all provincial and federal employment legislation
Once the student has joined your organization:
- Provide the incoming student with an orientation to familiarize him or her with the employer's situation and expectations
- Provide productive-learning opportunities related to the student’s specialty
- Provide ongoing supervision to the student
- If the student stays or returns to your organization for successive work terms, provide him or her with increasing responsibilities
- Participate in a mid term work site visit conducted by the Co-op Education Instructor
- At the end of each four-month work term, complete a student evaluation form and review the results with the student
To enhance the student's job performance and optimize learning, it is recommended that employers involve the student in frequent feedback. Employers are asked to complete a final evaluation and then return the evaluation to Langara College, where it becomes part of the student's record.
What are the Wage Expectations for Co-op Students?
Co-op students are, in effect, hired as temporary full time employees.
Pay rate is determined individually by each employer according to fair levels within the organization's structure. Students are normally paid at rates comparable to entry level employees performing similar tasks. Co-op Education Instructors maintain an ongoing record of common average wage rates for each specific field.
Students in their second or third work term are generally assigned more responsibility and their wage rates are expected to increase.